1. Field of the Invention
Higher than average seasonal temperatures have a tendency to cause excessive wear and tear on air conditioning units. Therefore it is logical to try to find more efficient ways of operating an air conditioning unit in order to minimize the amount of time of operation of those portions of an air conditioner which are most prone to wearing out, such as pumps and compressors. One portion of the cycle of operation of an air conditioner causes vaporized coolant to become condensed. When it condenses, the coolant gives off the heat it is bearing which was removed from the air which the air conditioner was cooling. The process for increasing the amount of heat which can be removed from the condenser will result in more efficient operation from an air conditioning unit per given amount of time, and have a net result of decreasing the amount of time that an air conditioners pump or compressor needs to be turned on. This would give the two beneficial results of decreased energy consumption and decreased wear and tear on the air conditioning unit itself. The invention here provides a quicker and more efficient means for transferring heat from the condenser unit of an air conditioner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The attempts which have been made to increase the efficiency with which a condenser dissipates its heat have largely centered on the approach of spraying water onto the cooling fins of the condenser. This had the effect of increasing the heat transfer of the condenser by causing air which passed over the wetted cooling fins to evaporate the water and therefore to draw more heat off the fins in this evaporative process than would ordinarily have been drawn off the cooling fins.
Illustrative of this idea is the patent of Faxon, U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,265, whose apparatus applied a spray or mist of water directly onto the coils and the fins of a condenser. Faxon made use of a spray nozzle to apply a mist, and included a control system so that whenever the temperature of the surroundings exceeded a predetermined point, a temperature sensor would open a valve thereby permitting water to be sprayed through the nozzle for a period of time, until the surrounding temperature dropped below a certain predetermined point.
The invention of Shires, U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,266, made use of a plurality of spray nozzles that would spray water over the coils of the cooling fins of the condenser. Once again, the stream of water was controlled by a valve which would be opened and closed in response to the temperature of the exhaust air stream which a motor driven fan would cause to flow over the condenser.
The invention of Ellis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,406, again made use of the idea of spraying water onto the condenser coils and fins. Ellis took this idea one step further however by using a mixture of tap water and of condenser water which was collected from the runoff from the evaporation coils, in the belief that using such a mixture would decrease the amount of mineral deposits which would form on the condenser coils and fins.
Starr, U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,995, did not use the principle of direct application of water to the condenser coils and cooling fins. Instead, Starr chose to cool and treat the air which cooled the condensing portion of the machinery rather than to cool the condenser itself. Starr positioned a water evaporator in front of the air flow which hit the condenser of the air conditioner. Air flowing through the evaporator would first be cooled prior to its hitting the condenser unit. In order to cool the evaporator itself, Starr used a canvas bag positioned on the upper surface of his evaporator; the bag acted as a soaker sack when filled with water. That is, when it was filled with water, it would slowly allow water to diffuse downwards over the channels of his upstream evaporator.
The patents of Ellis, Shires, and Faxon, while putting to good use the principle of directly applying an external coolant to the condenser coils and cooling fins, presented a problem in that the amount of water that they used over a given period of time was relatively little, meaning that water would for some extent remain idle along its line. The effect of this would be that the water in the line would become heated or warmed to some extent and it would then be this heated or warmed water which would be applied to the coils for some certain period of time. This would be inefficient, counter-productive and possibly harmful if the water in the line become warm enough to cause a drastic rise in head pressure of the air conditioning unit. The invention here overcomes this problem by using a much higher relative rate of flow and therefore flushing heated water out of the supply line much more quickly than with the other prior art.
A second inherent problem with the prior art is the exposure of apparatus to environmental dangers such as dust, debris, leaves, animals, and playful children. The invention here is well protected by the housing of the air conditioning unit itself.
Furthermore, the present invention is more efficient in its cooling capacity than the prior inventions because of its higher volume of water which is being applied to the condenser. This is so for two reasons. Firstly, cooling is accomplished through the evaporative principle of water which is directly evaporating off of the condenser coils and cooling fins. Secondly, cooling is accomplished through a direct transfer of heat from the coils and fins to the coolant water itself flowing down and through the assembly.
The clear difference between the invention of Starr and the present invention is that the present invention acts directly to cool the condenser whereas the invention of Starr acted to cool the air which in turn was made to cool the condenser. This entailed a great deal of unnecessary equipment installation and a degree of unnecessary equipment maintenance, neither of which is a feature of the present invention which is both simple to install and simple to maintain. The soaking sock in the Starr invention is also prone to premature wear and decomposition unlike the water diffusing means in the present invention.
The present invention overcomes the short comings of the prior inventions through its simplicity of installation and maintenance, as well as through its increased efficiency through the use of the scientific principles of evaporation and direct heat transfer, thereby resulting in a more efficiently operating air conditioning unit, meaning less equipment failure and lower energy consumption rates.